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Chinese Herbal Medicine

What exactly is insomnia? The inability to fall asleep, to stay asleep or have non-restorative sleep. All of these no doubt, influence our daily functioning in a negative way.

In Western medicine, therapy for insomnia is usually based on prescribed medications.

For centuries, Chinese Herbal Medicine has been a traditional form of health care with a documented history. The oldest book about Chinese Herbal Medicine, which was written 2000 years ago, is apparently still used.

Chinese Herbal Medicine is frequently used in the treatment of insomnia since millions of people are affected by it. There were people studied between the ages of 40 and 49 years old. There were men and women but mostly women.

The aim of this study was to conduct a large-scale pharmaco-epidemiologic study and evaluate the frequency and patterns of CHM use in treating insomnia. Results showed that there were 16,134 subjects who visited TCM clinics for insomnia in Taiwan during 2002 and received a total of 29,801 CHM prescriptions.

In clinical practice, prescriptions of CHMs for insomnia largely reflect the experience of the Chinese herbal doctor or what is recommended by traditional Chinese texts.